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Paolo Sorrentino leads protests against smoking ban in Italian movies

By:
WENN.com
Jan 16, 2015

Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino has joined a host of filmmakers who are fighting plans to ban smoking in Italian movies. The country's health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, is backing plans to cleanse cigarettes from the big screen and declared she wants to see "regulation" of smoking in films.
A group of writers and filmmakers, including The Great Beauty director Sorrentino, have now written an open letter to Lorenzin voicing their fury and accusing the Italian government of censorship.
The letter, published in Italian newspaper La Repubblica, reads, "We have to say that we are shocked and worried that a norm could emerge that would be really ridiculous. The idea that a lawmaker could intervene in the stories of characters that are told in a work, beautiful or ugly as it may be, is very upsetting to our liberal convictions."

Somali Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi, Paul Dano and Michael Fassbender are among the 271 artists and executives who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Actors Ben Foster, Sally Hawkins, Josh Hutcherson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and Jason Statham and directors Gavin O'Connor, Paolo Sorrentino and Jean-Marc Vallee are also on the membership list with Hollywood's top casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, make-up artists, animators, producers, moguls and documentary makers.
Musicians Eddie Vedder and Pharrell Williams have also been invited to join the Academy.
New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception in September (14).

California Suite co-stars Jane Fonda and Michael Caine are to reunite onscreen in Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's new film Youth. Rachel Weisz, Harvey Keitel and Paul Dano have also signed up to work on the Oscar-winning filmmaker's latest project, which centres on two old friends vacationing together at a hotel at the foot of the Alps, according to Deadline.com.
Sorrentino is currently in demand after picking up the Best Foreign Language film Oscar in March (14) for his acclaimed movie The Great Beauty.

Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster and Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty are among the nine semi-finalists for the 2014 Oscars' Best Foreign Language Film category. Representatives from a record 76 countries submitted their top picks for the Academy Award in October (13), and the longlist has been gradually cut down in the run-up to the 2014 prizegiving.
The contenders were reduced to nine on Friday (20Dec13) and the new list also features: The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen (Belgium); An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Danis Tanovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina); The Missing Picture by Rithy Panh (Cambodia); The Hunt by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark); Two Lives from Georg Maas (Germany), The Notebook by Janos Szasz (Hungary), and Hany Abu-Assad's Omar (Palestine).
The final shortlist will feature five movies in contention for the big prize and will be announced on 16 January (14), when the Oscar nominations will be unveiled.
The 86th Academy Awards will take place in Hollywood on 2 March (14).

Italian movie The Great Beauty has been tipped for glory at the Oscars after winning big at the European Film Awards (EFA) on Saturday night (07Dec13). The film, also released as La Grande Bellezza, won the coveted European Film award at the ceremony in Berlin, Germany, while also taking prizes for director Paolo Sorrentino and Best Editing. The movie's star, Toni Servillo, saw off competition from Britain's Jude Law to take the European Actor prize.
Last year (12), Michael Haneke's drama Amour dominated the European Film Awards and went on to scoop the Best Foreign Language Film trophy at the Academy Awards.
Other winners at the EFAs included Belgian star Veerle Baetens, who took the European Actress trophy ahead of Hollywood regulars Keira Knightley and Naomi Watts for her role in The Broken Circle Breakdown, and Pierce Brosnan's Love is All You Need, which triumphed in the comedy film category.
Veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve picked up a lifetime achievement award, and Spanish moviemaker Pedro Almodovar was also honoured for his contribution to filmmaking.
During his speech, Almodovar took the opportunity to criticise the Spanish government for slashing funding for the film industry, calling the cuts "insensitive" and blasting the country's "awful cultural policy".

Marion Cotillard and Patricia Clarkson have been added to the jury for the 13th annual Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco. The actresses join director Martin Scorsese on the panel, which will vote for the Golden Star award for best film, as well as jury Best Actor and Best Actress honours.
They will be joined by moviemakers Amat Escalante, Anurag Kashyap and Paolo Sorrentino, and French star Golshifteh Farahani, among others.
The 15 films vying for the top prize are set to be announced next week (begs04Oct13).
The festival runs from 29 November (13) to 7 December (13).

It's been awhile since we heard anything about Sean Penn's nazi-hunting-with-a-twist film, This Must Be The Place. But it looks like the folks over at The Weinstein Company—who debuted a new trailer today for the Paolo Sorrentino (2009's Il Divo) film today—are ready to promote and release the film.
The new trailer is not that different from what we've seen before, but does have more insight into the internal crisis happening with Penn's Robert Smith Cheyenne, aging rocker with a nazi-hunting agenda (naturally). The film debuted to mostly-positive reviews at Cannes in 2011, where Weinstein acquired the North American distribution rights.
The film is the quest of Penn's reclusive Cheyenne as he searches for the nazi who tortured his now-dead father in Auschwitz. There's a big gun (is he going to kill the nazi?), stories of his once-epic career (singing with Mick Jagger!), a lot of Frances McDormand, and the music of the brilliant and always-in-all-white David Byrne. While the film certainly looks different (always a welcome thing given Hollywood's predilection for sequels, prequels and reboots) and is a refreshingly quirky twist on the crime-dramedy scene, we'll let you decide if the film has Oscar-potential for Penn and Co.
This Must Be The Place opens on November 9, 2012.
What do you think of the trailer and Penn's gothic look? Sock your thoughts to us in the comments.
Follow Alicia on Twitter @alicialutes
More:
Weinstein Co. Picks Up Sean Penn's 'This Must Be the Place'
Sean Penn Rocks, Rolls, and Hunts Nazis in 'This Must Be the Place' Trailer
Watch Sean Penn Play A Rock Star, Hunt Nazis In New Trailer

The filmmaker will be presented with the 2012 Grand Premio Torino lifetime achievement award, while his comedy The Angel's Share - which won Loach the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in France last month (May12) - will receive its Italian premiere at the annual event.
Meanwhile, Italian director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino will head up Turin's international competition jury. The festival takes place from 23 November to 1 December (12).

Summary

<p>Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino drew widespread praise for his visually striking, complex dramas, which included such festival favorites as "The Family Friend" (2006), "Il Divo" (2008) and "The Great Beauty" (2013). Sorrentino's work drew comparisons to such legendary filmmakers as Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni for its focus on changing identities at both the personal level, as embodied by the state of flux experienced by their lead figures, and on a national scope through explorations of Italy's past and present. Sorrentino rose quickly from European favorite with "Consequences of Love" (2004), which starred his frequent collaborator, Toni Servillo, to international acclaim with "Il Divo" (2008), a glossy examination of real-life Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti's controversial career. After making his first English-language feature with "This Must Be the Place" (2011), an eccentric comedy-drama with Sean Penn, Sorrentino earned some of his best reviews for "The Great Beauty" (2013), which reflected on the twilight years of a novelist (Servillo) and his beloved Rome. Paolo Sorrentino's best work offered arthouse cinema at its most visually and emotionally engaging, as well as the promise of greatness to come. </p><p>Born May 31, 1970, Paolo Sorrentino was raised along with his older brother and sister in an apartment in Naples. He turned to film after losing interest in his initial passion - economics - and began writing and directing several short films before making his feature debut with "One Man Up" (2001), about a pair of faded public figures who share the same name. The film earned Sorrentino the Nastro d'Argento for Best New Director, and established him as an important new voice in Italian film. His sophomore effort, the thriller-drama "Consequences of Love," brought him not only a Palme d'Or nomination from the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, but his first recognition from international audiences. Two years later, he offered the flip side perspective of his previous film: while "Consequences" concerned an aging, love-struck businessman, "The Family Friend" (2006) focused on an elderly and unlovable loan shark who lusts after a beautiful young woman. </p><p> Sorrentino took a bold stance with his next feature, "Il Divo" (2008), which presented an unauthorized biographical portrait of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, whose long reign was marred by various murders and connections to the Mafia. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling that same year. Sorrentino made his English-language debut in 2011 with "This Must Be The Place," an unusual drama about a former rock star (Sean Penn) who embarks on a hunt for the Nazi war criminal who terrorized his father while imprisoned in Auschwitz. Penn's performance as the obsessed, makeup-bedecked rocker earned critical praise, but the film earned mixed reviews from critics. Sorrentino rebounded in 2013 with "The Great Beauty," a elegiac look at Rome's past from the perspective of an aging writer reviewing his life and accomplishments. The picture topped numerous international critics' lists for best films of the year and took home Italy's first Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in a quarter-century. That same year, it was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. </p>

Name

Role

Comments

Education

Name

Notes

Works frequently with the same cast and crew, including actor Toni Servillo, cinematographer Luca Bigazzi and producers Francesca Cima and Nicolo Giuliano

Made his acting debut with a cameo in Nana Moretti's "The Caiman" in 2006

Has directed television commercials for Fiat and Yamamay.

Published a novel, Hanno tutti ragione, in 2010 and a collection of short stories, Tony Pagoda e I suoi amici in 2012.

Served as president of the jury in the "Un certain regard" category at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.